Texts
The Klimt Collection of the Wien Museum
Facts and Conclusions
Ursula Storch
Highlights and Rarities
The Klimt Drawings of the Wien Museum
Marian Bisanz-Prakken
Sodom and Gomorrah Updated
Gustav Klimt’s Image of Woman and of the Foreign
Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer
To Each Age, a Klimt of Its Own
Gustav Klimt between Politics and Society
Sophie Lillie

12

22

1 The School of Applied Arts 1877–1881

65

2 Allegories 1882–1897

71

3 Commissions 1883–1898

91

4 Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater 1888–89

A Portrait of the Late Nineteenth Century
Gustav Klimt’s Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater
Georg Gaugusch, Sophie Lillie

5 Secession 1897–1903

109

112
133

6 The University Paintings 1894/95–1903 155
30

7 Figure Studies 1898–1917/18

179

8 Portraits 1883–1917/18 199
40

Gustav Klimt’s Practice of Intervisuality
“Klimtifying” in the Vienna Secession and
the Wiener Werkstätte
William M. Johnston

historian Werner Hofmann had claimed that
Klimt was only peripherally related to the radical

Klimt as Advertising Agency

upheavals of early twentieth century art. In

6

opposition to this stance, “official” Austrian

Klimt runs one of the most successful Viennese

Klimt doctrine—seamlessly interwoven with

advertising agencies—posthumously. Over the

the thematic complex known as “Vienna 1900”—

past few decades, the visual vocabulary of Klimt

Detail of the golden dome from
the Secession Building used by
WienTourismus as an advertising
motif for the 2012 Klimt Year

and the Jugendstil has become stabilized in

collection of works on paper. I shall discuss

Vienna as the effective decor of a fruitful process

these—now presented in their entirety—below in

of image reconstruction. For cultural tourism,

greater detail.

Klimt represents an exclusivity factor that unites
a number of different target groups and ideally

The Double Klimt

supplements the mythology of the Habsburgs
and the topos of Gemütlichkeit, that marriage of

“Each generation discovers a new Klimt,” claims

imperial tradition and coziness. Around a half-

Klimt expert Tobias G. Natter. Certainly, this is the

century ago, with the rediscovery of the upscale

case for specialists, though it is perhaps less true

label “Vienna 1900,” the city’s firmament of

for the general public. The latter has consistently

memory was charged with a whiff of modernity.

been confronted with an artist whose paintings

And yet this “golden age” of innovation through

are the most expensive ever produced in Austria,

which Vienna has so successfully asserted its

yet whose oeuvre has been reduced in the

worldwide cultural significance lies farther

popular imagination to at most twenty celebrated

and farther in the past, and it has long been

canvases—a set of works that have, moreover, a

threatened by depletion, reduced to no more

kind of double existence: a reality both physical,

than formulaic nostalgia. Today, Klimt enjoys the

in museums, and virtual, in the unending stream

status of a secularized municipal saint, and his

of reproductions. One could speak of the Mona

aesthetic repertoire serves as the gold mine for

Lisa effect: the image is so familiar that tourists

continually new uses. The Wien Museum, too,

do little more than check it off their list dutifully

profits from this.

when at the museum. Particularly for individuals

In the Viennese museum landscape, Klimt is

with a more developed interest in art, Klimt is a

a potent currency for measuring significance.

phenomenon one prefers to ignore: “for me, Klimt

This becomes clear already from the number of

was always just too over-hyped,” says the artist

loan requests that are received. At the very top

Ulrike Lienbacher, for example.

stands the Belvedere, its ranking attributable

This attitude of avoidance may be related to

to the presence of iconic works like The Kiss.

Klimt marketing, which has had cash registers

The Leopold Museum struggles to retain second

ringing for ages. For there exists a second

place. Third place is shared, loosely speaking,

Klimt, the one feeding the merchandisers, for

between the Albertina, with its drawings of

whom the images are little more than the raw

exceptional quality, and the Wien Museum,

material for design variations. In early 2012, the

home not just to a top painting, the Portrait of

Wien Museum conducted a survey on Facebook

Emilie Flöge, but also (in storage) to an enormous

entitled “Worst of Klimt.” Participation was
7

extensive, and the findings led well beyond

Klimt collection (the largest anywhere in

the customary souvenirs: presented online

terms of sheer numbers), already known to art

among other things was a Smart Car with Klimt

lovers through numerous guest appearances

decor, a Klimt toilet seat (no kidding!), a Klimt

in museums worldwide, will be shown in its

bathing suit, even a Klimt body tattoo. Viewed

entirety. Alongside world-famous paintings and

in terms of cultural history, this repro and retro

Klimt’s censored Secession poster, alongside

Klimt is at least as significant for the history of

his death mask, photographs, and his painter’s

the impact of his oeuvre—so well-adapted to

smock, our holdings include some four hundred

kitsch—as the scholarly reception. In a paper

drawings: an immense cosmos. There are sheets

on the collecting strategy of the Wien Museum,

from all career phases, from the student years

we read: “The transformation of art and elite

until shortly before his death, which cohere into

culture into clichés that are reproduced on a

larger cycles. The enormous wealth of sketches,

mass scale is an important element of reception

detailed studies after nature, variations, and

history: an institution such as the Wien Museum,

“finished” drawings is presented—organized

which owns important works by Klimt, is also

into thematic ensembles—in a dense, serial

responsible for the production of retro-Jugendstil

hanging: a shimmering stream of snapshots

souvenirs.” Now, a municipal museum devoted to

offering access to the working process of an

cultural history is to be distinguished from one

artist who struggled doggedly before arriving

devoted exclusively to art, which is why we have

at a final composition. Value judgments become

begun recently to collect “Klimtified” products

relativized, the extraordinary appears as

as documents of contemporary history. Some of

the distillate of the continuous. We are well

these will be on display in the exhibition, along

aware that the consistently non-hierarchical

with selections from the “Worst of Klimt” survey.

installation developed by curator Ursula Storch

Perhaps the new view of Klimt is one that

in collaboration with the architectural office

emerges from the artist’s popularity: even during

BWM (which does, however, subtly emphasize

his lifetime, his art’s ingratiating quality and its

exceptional individual sheets) involves a risky

proximity to kitsch were factors in his success.

game with the aura of an artist whose most

In this light, Klimt appears increasingly as a Pop

fleeting sketches are regularly auctioned as

artist, one entirely comparable to Andy Warhol or

master drawings.

Keith Haring.

In addition, there are videos that not only narrate

But there is also a more serious bridge between

the history of the collection, but are conceived

contemporary art and the “golden” Klimt,

as “discursive commentary”—with statements

namely a renewed interest in the ornamental and

on “Klimt overkill,” on the artist’s significance for

decorative.

tourism in Vienna, and on his ambivalent image of
women, also in light of the considerable number

The Collection of the Wien Museum

of often explicitly erotic drawings contained in
the collection.

Nearly all of Vienna’s museums are taking

A related element is the series of “Klimt debates”

advantage of 2012—the year that marks Klimt’s

featured in the accompanying program, including

one-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday—to present

one with the title “Images of Women from the

their Klimt holdings. It is also an opportunity to

Day before Yesterday?” and one on the topic

display less-known works alongside canonized

“Klimt Overdose: A Danger for Vienna.”

masterpieces. Hopefully, a range of approaches

Well adapted to this context is a headline that

and modes of presentation will generate startling

appeared recently in Die Presse: “Can Klimt Still

perspectives and illuminating distinctions in

Be Rescued?”

relation to a star artist who often suffers from
the conviction that we know him all too well.
The Wien Museum has resolved upon a radical
approach: for the first time ever, the museum’s
8

Thanks to Klimt
For her role as curator of the exhibition—giving
the museum its first opportunity to examine a
core ensemble of works held in its care—and
for her development of the show’s underlying
concept, my thanks go to Ursula Storch, who
has been passionately involved with the Klimt
collection of the Wien Museum for many years.
The exhibition design is the work of Johann
Moser, in collaboration with Sanja Utech, of
BWM Architekten; the graphic design is by
the office Perndl+Co, with Gerhard Bauer,
in collaboration with Katharina Hetzeneder,
contributing the exhibition graphics and Josef
Perndl, in collaboration with Aleksandra Gustin,
the catalogue design. My deepest thanks to all
of you for your commitment and your efforts,
as always with great functional and formal
precision.
This volume will serve as a catalogue raisonné
of our Klimt collection; many drawings are
published here for the first time. Kerstin Krenn’s
collaboration has proven invaluable, both
regarding the cataloguing of the oeuvre and the
realization of the exhibition and publication. My
gratitude goes to all of the catalogue authors
for their contributions, which provide crucial
reinterpretations of Gustav Klimt’s works and
their reception. Ralph Gleis supplied major
support with regard to the media stations.
My thanks also to Isabelle Exinger-Lang for
production management, and Andreas Gruber
and Alexandra Moser for paper conservation.
Complementing the exhibition is the Vienna
Library’s presentation of posters, based on a
concept by Julia König and Sylvia Mattl-Wurm:
the installation traces the history of Klimt
exhibitions, as well as the transfer of imagery
from Klimt’s motifs to products and tourism
advertising.
Wolfgang Kos
Director, Wien Museum

9

10

Texts

11

The Klimt Collection
of the Wien Museum
Facts and Conclusions

Ursula Storch
1 I employ the designation “Wien
Museum” when referring to the
institution during the period from 2003
to the present, and when speaking about
the history of the museum as a whole
from a contemporary perspective. The
name “Historisches Museum der Stadt
Wien” (Museum of History of the City of
Vienna) applies to the period between
1939 and 2003. Since its foundation in 1888
and up until 1939, the museum formed
a department of Vienna’s Municipal
Collections. All three designations refer
to the same institution, as does the
shorthand reference to “the museum,”
which appears in the appropriate
contexts.

Based on the absolute numbers of catalogue

entirety for the very first time in our history as an

entries for works by Gustav Klimt, one must

institution. This single enterprise on the part of

conclude that the Wien Museum is in possession

a museum of cultural history leads into the kind

of the largest Klimt collection in the world. With

of uncharted territory a pure art museum might

roughly four hundred drawings by the iconic

wish to avoid, but at the same time allows us to

artist from late nineteenth-century Vienna—

occupy a very special niche in the context of the

the era of “Vienna 1900”—the museum leaves

various Klimt exhibitions announced for 2012,

all other institutions behind. The collection

while also posing the question: “How much Klimt

further includes eight other original works, all oil

can Vienna endure?”

paintings, at least two of which must be ranked

Our approach brings with it a welcome ancillary

among the most important by this artist. By virtue

effect for the Wien Museum and for Klimt

2 Dedication without document no.,
inv. no. 1.693.

of their rarity, Klimt’s posters for the Vienna

research in general: for the first time ever, a

Secession are also a key part of his oeuvre.

factual analysis of the collection is being carried

As a museum of cultural history—in German,

out, one likely to result in the clarification of a

a “Universalmuseum”—the Wien Museum is in

range of questions that transcend the exhibition

possession of an extensive series of additional

itself.

objects that are related to Gustav Klimt in
various ways. These include one of his famous

On the History of the Collection

blue painter’s smocks, portrait photographs

12

taken by the most celebrated photographers of

How, one might ask, did such a collection come

his time, two busts depicting the artist, his death

together in the first place?

mask, a drawing by Egon Schiele depicting his

The acquisitions can be traced back to the most

colleague in the room where he was laid out

diverse sources, and took place over a period of one

after his death at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus,

hundred and ten years. The following chronological

as well as a series of Klimt souvenirs in whose

sketch is intended to provide insights into the

absence—especially in 2012—the product

genesis of the Klimt collection of the Wien Museum.

palette of Viennese tourism marketing would be

The object with the lowest inventory number

unthinkable.

among our Klimt holdings is an original drawing

This so-called Klimt year, which marks the one-

of a design for a gift to be given to ladies

hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of his birth,

attending the Ball of the City of Vienna in 1892;

represents an opportunity to present the Wien
Museum’s1 collection of works by Austria’s

11 Hitherto, it was assumed that the
work depicted the collector’s wife.
Recently, it was proposed that the subject
might instead be August Heymann’s
sister (cf. Monika Sommer and Alexandra
Steiner-Strauss, Gustav Klimt und Wien:
Spaziergänge zu den Orten seines Wirkens
(Vienna, 2012), pp. 153–59). Since the
work’s provenance remains the sole clue
to its iconography, the sitter’s identity is
still in doubt.

inventory. In a curriculum vitae of 1893, the artist

Albert Berger, Klimt’s famous posters for the first

provides the following information about the

and eighteenth Secession exhibitions, including

work’s inception: “In 1888–89, for a commission

the finished drawing for the former, became part

from the municipal council, I painted a view of

of the museum’s holdings.10

the auditorium of the Old Burgtheater for the

In 1937, another female portrait by Klimt entered

12 Document no. 1200/1937, inv. no. 61.061.

Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien. For this

the collection. This portrait of an unknown

13 Document no. 586/1939, inv. no. 60.466.

composition, which contains approximately 150

woman11 formed part of the collection of Dr.

portraits in watercolor, I received the Kaiser­

August Heymann—a diverse collection of

14 My sincerest thanks in this
connection to Marian Bisanz-Prakken,
Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, Tobias
G. Natter, and Othmar Rychlik for
discussions on this topic.

5

preis in the amount of 400 ducats at the annual

cultural and historical materials related to

exhibition of 1890 at the Künstlerhaus.”6

Vienna, comprising altogether more than ten

In 1909, two meticulous watercolor death

thousand objects—which was purchased from

portraits entered the collection as a donation

the collector’s daughter.12

from a private Viennese collection.7 Both

Purchased on March 21, 1939, at an auction

subjects were well-known Viennese personalities,

held at the Dorotheum was sales item number

Julius von Lott (1836–1883), chairman of the

558: “Klimt: Sappho, oil sketch.”13 Although an

board of the state railway construction company,

entry in the inventory indicates that the painting

and the art historian Rudolf von Eitelberger

originally belonged to a cleaning woman of

(1817–1885), who was the founding director of the

Klimt’s, its attribution to Klimt has meanwhile

Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, and of

been disputed by a number of experts.14 It may in

the School of Applied Arts originally associated

fact be an early work of Gustav Klimt’s younger

with it.

brother Ernst.

Not long before his death in 1918, the Jugendstil

The earliest drawing in the collection is a signed

architect Otto Wagner approached the museum

(perhaps only later?)15 portrait of a woman that

with the request that it consider purchasing

Klimt executed in 1877, when he was just fifteen

the entire contents of the parlor adjacent to

years old, presumably after a photograph; it was

his studio in order to preserve it for posterity.

purchased in 1940 from a private collection.16

The enclosed typewritten inventory lists ninety-

Two additional sheets, both produced in

three objects, together with prices, with the

connection with the ceiling paintings intended

seventeenth item listed as “Klimt. Female head,

for the University of Vienna, were purchased at an

hand drawing K 250.” After Wagner’s death, this

auction held at the Dorotheum in early November

purchase did in fact take place; the objects were

of 1942.17

15 The signature is the one used by
Klimt only beginning in the mid-1890s;
the academic nudes produced at the
School of Applied Arts in the late 1870s,
on the other hand, are signed in a rather
conventional manner.
16 Document no. 226/1940, inv. no. 66.054.
17 Document no. 1241/1942, inv.
nos. 71.506 and 71.507. The latter was
restituted in 2006—for more detail on this
incident, see present text below.

23 Document no. 692/1954, inv. no.
100.686.
24 Document no. 797/1954, inv. no.
115.143.
25 Document no. 484/1955, inv. nos.
105.306/1-3. These drawings may have
been executed by Franz Matsch as
studies for a painting of the Burgtheater;
conceived as a pendant to Gustav Klimt’s
Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater, the
painting shows the stage from the
auditorium. Alice Strobl incorporated
them into the catalogue raisonné of
Klimt’s drawings, while Marian BisanzPrakken has reinforced existing doubts
about Klimt’s authorship.

was a transition away from the continuously
identical format, based on sheets of packing
paper divided into quarters, to a slightly lustrous
type of imported Japanese paper in somewhat
larger dimensions.
The tension between sensuous immediacy and
formal discipline, between tangible proximity
and metaphysics, so characteristic of Klimt’s
studies, was also typical of the drawings from
the late years, which are marked by linear
freedom; in them, the dominant role is played
by female eroticism. Present are a number of
studies for two central pictorial undertakings:
The Virgin (1913) and The Bride (1917–18,
unfinished), in which the typologically highly
heterogeneous models are presented with
varying degrees of moods of reverie or erotic
ecstasy; apart from these studies there are a
high number of autonomous sheets. Among
28